For one reason or another I couldn’t make it to last month’s Destroyed High, but AT’s set was easily the one I was most looking forward to. Luckily Soham was on the case once again, coming up with a lengthy video of AT playing The Tune. It sounds like a nice clean mix to follow up, but sadly the clip ends before I can work out what the track might be…
Finnish
Epilim is generally acknowledged to be one of the real founders of the Finnish sound, though Proteus’ sets are about the only place to hear his material. Brilliant work from mixu, then, who has unearthed a couple of unreleased tracks. The first (which thanks to Jiipez, we now know is titled Trip 3) is a slow burner with some really nice trancy melodies and a fantastic second half, while the second (Plasma) sounds like it could have influenced everything from Cyclone to Maruuk with its post-breakdown hoovers. Almost goes without saying, but both are essential listens for anyone with the slightest interest in the origins of our scene.
Since the original post, mixu has uploaded a third tune with a lovely, chilled breakdown. Does anyone have any idea what this one’s called?
Following up the very promising Ephexor and Gladiator, Heathen also has an Epyx & Cyrez remix forthcoming on FINRG. This preview doesn’t give too much away, but it’s nice to hear such pacy drums in an E&C track, while the synths are really sounding top class.
In other news, today I finished the set I’ve been working on. Putting it together in two weeks might have cost me my sanity, but I’m pretty happy with the end result – watch this space!
That means that getting a forum up and running is top of the ‘to do’ list again, as well as finishing at least one of the tunes I’ve got lying around here.
Amini – Eupraxia (Unmixed) by DJ-Amini
It’s great to see Amini keeping up the pace with his production – following his recent trance tune Electric is a proper 175bpm freeform effort called Eupraxia. Once again showing the influence of Sam One, Horzi and Substanced, this is a very good tune with some nice creative touches. If you’re going to go down the ‘huge breakdown’ route you have to make sure it’s a good one, and here Amini’s managed it nicely with a vaguely tech-dance (?) section followed by some hyper-trancy melodies. Honourable mentions to the bassline and general mixdown too, very impressive stuff.
I’m currently going utterly insane (mix-related woes, predictably), but here’s another set to check out courtesy of Dyzphazia. Supernova Remnant is his trance alias, and so here we have a mix that goes right through the genres from trance to freeform, via some drum & bass. I might not be the biggest fan of some of the styles here, but the mixing is absolutely fine and really blends it all together, smoothly progressing from ‘nice background music’ to ‘a set you can dance to’. The final quarter is where the freeform comes in, including my old remix of Hell’s Gate and a rather cheeky (but seamlessly put together) combination of Iron Squid and the Assembly 2010 edit.
- Yuri Kane – Right Back (original mix)
- Triple A – Winter Stayed (Armins On the Beach mix)
- Orjan Nilsen – Between the Rays
- Renvo – Breakout
- Sander Van Doorn vs. Afrojack & R3hab – Koko Prutataaa (First State BASHUP)
- Marcel Woods – Sunrise (Jonas Stenberg Remix)
- John O Callaghan & Betsie Larkin – Save This Moment (Gareth Emery Remix)
- Dash Berlin ft. Jonathon Mendelsohn – The Better Half Of Me
- Motorcycle – As the Rush Comes (Armins Universal Religion Remix)
- Andain – Beautiful Things (Gabriel & Dresden’s Unplugged Mix)
- Dash Berlin – Til The Sky Falls Down (Dash Berlin 4 AM Mix)
- Aly & Fila ft. Jwaydan – We Control The Sunlight
- Commix – Japanese Electronics
- Rank 1 – L.E.D. Let There Be Light (Code 0 Remix)
- Terranaut – Remember Me
- CLSM ft. Stefan B – Drifting Away (Original Mix)
- Alek Szahala – Iron Squid (Dyzphazia’s Re:Assembly 2010 Edit)
- GULD – Requiem
- Re-Form – Silver Cube
- Zio – Hell’s Gate (Plasmadancer Remix)
- Nobuo Uematsu – J.E.N.O.V.A. (FFVII AC Version)
Nomic made an appearance at last weekend’s Harder.fi event, and thanks (as usual) to Syntse we’ve got some nice footage of the event. It says it all about the sorry state of the freeform scene that someone as talented as Nomic isn’t headlining a different event every week, but he’s only challenged by Betwixt & Between/Alek Szahala as my artist of the year so far.
Awa (Unfinished & Lost Forever version) [100K DL´s edition] by FINRG Recordings
Something of a milestone for FINRG recently, reaching a total of 100,000 downloads since it became a free label. To mark the event, Nomic has released the latest (2009?) version of Awa, a very versatile tune if you’re in the mood for some long mixing, and plenty of nice melodies for the home listeners too.
There are some real gems on pocketpool1000’s (aka mixu) YouTube channel these days, and here’s an absolutely brilliant oldie from Nomic. I think I’ve heard most of his back catalogue, but this mix of 90s breakbeats, happy hardcore stabs and Nomic-style freeform is new to me.
Substanced – The World Collapses – Album Previews by Substanced / Subi
Substanced’s upcoming album is on the horizon, and now we’re starting to see some amazing stuff in preview form. The intro section’s kick, bass and filters took me right back to the good old days of Pain on Creation, and there’s acid, drum and bass, all sorts going on elsewhere.
If the material on here matches up to Geneva Part II, this is going to be one of the most important releases this year, no question.
Alek Száhala – Ziggurat by FINRG Recordings
FINRG is building up some real momentum again, and following up Guld’s Concept of Love remix we now have a brand new freeform release from Alek Szahala. Everyone’ll be familiar with Ziggurat from the Mayhem 2011 set, but there’s no unfinished edit business going on here, it’s now updated with an incredible new section from 4.12 onwards. This one nicely balances the melodies with the rougher stuff, and will no doubt be getting some serious play from any right-minded DJ for the rest of this year.